To prevent floods, landowners should be given incentives to manage the catchment areas of rivers

SIR – The increased dredging of rivers will not address the root cause of flooding, which is water being allowed to run off upland areas too quickly. Agricultural subsidies should be realigned so that landowners are compensated for protecting rivers from excessive silt input from fields, so cutting down on the need to dredge. Planners must also stop permitting new building on flood plains.

Communities and the economy will be much the better for such catchment management, and the aquatic environment and its species will be protected from the damage inflicted by emergency measures.

SIR – As a member of an internal drainage board for almost 30 years, I have witnessed the decline of river maintenance since the Environment Agency took control some 18 years ago.

Boards administer land drainage and water level management in the 10 per cent of the country that is low-lying and prone to flooding. They do this in conjunction with the Environment Agency, which manages “highland water” rivers that flow through these lowland areas. The drainage board areas are dependent on the agency’s rivers being well maintained if there is to be a seamless system of flood defence. However the agency has concentrated on environmental issues rather than flood defence, as we can now see in Somerset.

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Every excuse is made by the agency not to dredge rivers regularly. At a meeting of the Association of Drainage Authorities last summer, the agency representative was asked what progress was being made with dredging the rivers serving the Somerset Levels, where many farms had already been under water for more than a year.

The answer was that no action could be taken until yet another environmental assessment was carried out because a rare hairy click beetle had been discovered.

It is reasonable to have a sensible debate about the root causes of the flooding in the Somerset Levels. It is shallow and unreasonable to mount personal and very public attacks on the staff, chief executive and chairman of the Environment Agency, who are all completely focused on protecting lives and property from flooding.

John Varley Board Member, Environment Agency Newton Poppleford, Devon

SIR – The National Farmers’ Union has accused the Environment Agency of putting wildlife before dredging. But wildlife is under extreme pressure and dredging is known to damage the habitats of endangered species such as the water vole.

Humans will survive the bad weather. Wildlife needs all the help it can get.

Gary Spring Southgate, Glamorgan

SIR – The Regional Water Authorities used to be responsible for land drainage. When the water industry was privatised the task fell not to the new private companies but to the National Rivers Authority. This did a great job in cleaning up Britain’s waterways until it was wound up in 1989 when the Environment Agency took over.

Mark Harland Scarborough, North Yorkshire

SIR – After the 2009 floods, the residents of Cockermouth and Keswick were told by the Environment Agency that dredging rivers was not policy and there were no funds for it. The National Rivers Authority used annually to dredge and maintain the whole length of the banks of both the Derwent and Cocker rivers.

No dredging for 20 years caused debris and vegetation to build up under the arches of bridges and along many stretches of both rivers. This was a major contributing factor to the flood.